Originally planned for Strikeforce “Heavy Artillery” in St. Louis,
the Yamamoto-Lopez match was pulled in order to clear Yamamoto’s
participation at Dream 14 on May 29 at the Saitama Super Arena in
Saitama, Japan. Dream will utilize its white cage for the
event.

Sasahara cited Yamamoto’s inability to secure a visa and the fact
that Strikeforce does not use his weight class as other reasons why
the bout was rescheduled. Dream’s bantamweight division falls under
a 139-pound limit.

Looking to rebound from a rocky and winless 2009, Yamamoto’s bout
with Lopez will serve as his 2010 debut. He dropped a split
decision to upstart Joe Warren in
the second round of the 2009 Dream featherweight grand prix one
year ago and followed it with an unexpected knockout loss to Korean
Jae
Hee Cheon in a K-1 Max fight in July. A unanimous decision
defeat to Sengoku featherweight champion Masanori
Kanehara capped his campaign at the annual K-1 “Dyanamite”
event on New Year’s Eve.

“I lost consecutively last year, so I plan to continue fighting
until I win,” Yamamoto said with a smile, noting that it will be
his second fight in a cage since his no contest with Josh Thomson
in December 2001. “I’ve been practicing for the cage here in my
gym. My opponent is very much like me in stature and he likes to
strike, so I expect him to come out and bang. It’ll be a fun
fight.”

Yamamoto said he spent part of his five-month sabbatical in
Okinawa, where he split time training groundwork on puzzle mats in
an aging, “homemade gym” room he rented, as well as training his
boxing with former WBA light welterweight champion Akinobu
Hiranaka. Though he claims Hiranaka shared a great deal of
pugilistic knowledge with him, Yamamoto would not specify what
these revelations were, instead encouraging fans to wait and
see.

No stranger to international competition, Lopez saw action in Japan
at the K-1 World Max Finals in July, when he dropped a unanimous
decision to young up-and-comer Hiroya Kawabe. He has lost
consecutive fights in MMA, including a 12-second technical knockout
defeat to Chucky Mady
in Bahrain in December.

When asked about a potential future bout in the United States,
Yamamoto would neither confirm nor deny the possibility. He claimed
he would leave it to fate and take the opportunity if it arose
again.

No other Dream 14 bouts were announced at the press conference.
However, Sasahara confirmed that there would be at least one more
fight revealed next week. Despite previous rumors pointing toward
Tatsuya
Kawajiri or Katsunori
Kikuno fighting at Dream 14, Sasahara called participation by
either fighter on the May 29 card doubtful.